EDFRINGE REVIEW: I, Claudius (Strawmoddie)

I, Claudius - ★★★★☆ - Epic

The Royal Scots Club (Venue 241): Mon 17 – Sat 22 Aug 2026
Review by Rebecca Mahar

Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 31 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin.

Local company Strawmoddie, known for their series of Terry Pratchett stage adaptations, take on ancient Rome in an ambitious two-part production of I, Claudius, bringing the 1976 television series to the stage for the first time in this limited world-premiere run.

The adaptation is penned by Strawmoddie Artistic Director Jonathan Whiteside, who directs alongside Caitlin Carter. It seeks to distil Jack Pullman’s thirteen-hour series – itself an adaptation of Robert Graves’ novels I, Claudius and its sequel, Claudius the God – into four and a half hours of theatre. 

A scene from I, Claudius: Part 1. Pic: Andrew Morris.

Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EDFRINGE REVIEW: Lovett (BoonDog Theatre)

Image
Lovett - ★★★★☆ - Compelling BoonDog Theatre 30 Jul – 25 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   We know Sweeney Todd’s backstory, but what about Mrs. Lovett? How did she get where we find her at the start of her partnership with the Demon Barber? That’s the premise of BoonDog Theatre’s new work  Lovett , written and performed by Lucy Roslyn, with direction from Jamie Firth.   Best known from the Sondheim musical  Sweeney Todd , Mrs. Lovett’s existence, like Sweeney’s, goes back to the mid-19 th  century penny dreadful  The String of Pearls.  Both have been unreliably asserted to be based on real people, and there have been many versions of Mrs. Lovett over the years, offering both plenty of material and room for creative license in the creation of Roslyn’s. Lucy Roslyn in Lovett. Pic: Andrew Perry. We join Mrs. Lovett in the Cellar at Pleasance Courtyard, where she is methodically sharpening a knife on a stone. “Some people don’t like this sound…” she chuck...
Read more

REVIEW: To Kill A Mockingbird (UK & Ireland Tour)

Image
To Kill A Mockingbird -  ★★★★★ - Compelling Festival Theatre: Tue 21 – Sat 25 Oct 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 22 October 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. All rise for the UK & Ireland tour of  To Kill a Mockingbird , Aaron Sorkin’s incisive adaptation of Harper Lee’s epochal novel at the Festival Theatre all week, and the Glasgow King’s for the first week in November. Set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the early 1930s, To Kill a Mockingbird centres around the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of rape by a young white woman, and the lawyer, Atticus Finch, appointed to defend him against an all-white jury and the threat of the electric chair if convicted Richard Coyle (Atticus Finch) and Aaron Shosanya (Tom Robinson), with the To Kill A Mockingbird cast. Pic: Johan Persson. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !
Read more

REVIEW: Hamlet (Royal Shakespeare Company)

Image
Luke Thallon as Hamlet and Kel Matsena as Horatio. Photo by Marc Brenner © RSC Hamlet - ★★★★★ - relentless RSC: Royal Shakespeare Theatre What more fitting way to christen a blog of this name than with a review of  Hamlet ?   Rupert Goold’s  Hamlet  at the Royal Shakespeare Company is a relentless powerhouse of a production, worthy of every cataclysmic metaphor one might throw at it —an avalanche, a freight train, a tornado, a hurricane— and presciently tied to the one from which it takes its concept: a sinking ship.    From its daring design and the acrobatic excellence with which the company handles the stage’s contortions, to the exceptional nuance of each character and the technical synergy that allows the audience to become immersed in its concept, this  Hamlet  delivers on every front, and is crowned with a shattering RSC debut from Hamlet himself, Luke Thallon. Luke Thallon as Hamlet. Photo by Marc Brenner © RSC The Danish city of Elsinore ...
Read more